Commonwealth Information Security Center Selects Tovaris as Email Security Partner.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2001

Tovaris, Inc., a provider of email security solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with the Commonwealth Information Security Center (CISC) at James Madison University.

"Tovaris is excited about the relationship with CISC," said Richard Gordon, Tovaris' Chief Executive Officer. "Our collaboration will help promote email security best practices across the Commonwealth and promote new ways of doing business securely. CISC and Tovaris are working together to educate Virginia businesses about the risks of using unsecured email to send sensitive information across the Internet - and how to eliminate those risks."

According to Allen Berg, CISC Executive Director for Development and Operations, "Our relationship with Tovaris will provide the Center with significant resources and expertise in the area of email security. We are excited to work with Tovaris to solve this significant problem for the Commonwealth and develop best practices and solutions for securely transmitting sensitive information."

Unsecured email messages - and the sensitive information that is communicated between businesses, government agencies, and individuals through those messages - are vulnerable to attack by hackers, thieves, and rogue systems administrators. In order to protect this information, organizations need to encrypt their email before it travels across the Internet. The threat to private information is so serious that the federal government has passed stringent privacy and security laws designed to safeguard citizens' private electronic information.

"Email is a gaping hole in any organization's firewall," added Bob Starling, Tovaris' Chief Technology Officer. "Most organizations spend significant resources establishing strong perimeter defenses around their information assets, but then send that same sensitive information out onto the Internet, unprotected, every day. Unsecured email is a significant information privacy and security threat to the Commonwealth of Virginia, its businesses, and its citizens."

About Commonwealth Information Security Center (CISC)

CISC was established by Virginia Governor James S. Gilmore as a key element of the Digital Dominion initiative, designed to help combat attacks on computer systems. Its mission is to advance information security research, technology and practice - in particular, to enable Virginia to become a leading provider and beneficiary of information security research and development. Simply said, the mission of CISC, with its partners in industry, government, and academia, is to support all businesses, industries, state and federal entities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. CISC is based at James Madison University's Department of Computer Science in Harrisonburg, Virginia. CISC university partners include George Mason University, Hampton University, Old Dominion University and Virginia Polytechnic University. CISC industry partners include Dyncorp, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Information Technology, Secure Computing Corporation, Tovaris, Ubizen, and Veridian. Government partners include the National Security Agency, Navy Combat Direction Systems Activity, and Commander Operational Test and Evaluation Force. Non-profit partners include Information Technology Association of America, and Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. More information about CISC is available at http://www.cisc.jmu.edu.

About Tovaris, Inc.

Tovaris provides email security solutions that protect the vital information of financial services firms, healthcare providers, and government agencies. Tovaris enables enterprises to protect their sensitive information and their customers' privacy through affordable, highly secure, easy to use, easy to deploy, and highly scaleable solutions. The Tovaris Email Security Solution allows organizations to enjoy the productivity, efficiency, and speed of email, while eliminating the costs of overnight shipment and the delays of traditional postal delivery.

More information about Tovaris is available at http://www.tovaris.com or 1-866-TOVARIS.